Fort Drum, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 72 Cases

Trends › By Installation › Fort Drum › 2020–2023

Based on 72 cases · 2020–2023 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Sexual Assault Charges: Often Contested, Lowest Conviction Rate

Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) was the most common charge at Fort Drum, charged in 19 cases (30% of those with charges listed), compared with 25% across the Army. It was also the charge least likely to end in a conviction on that article: 8 of 19 (42%).

Few of these cases ended in a guilty plea. Cases charging Article 120 ended in a guilty plea 16% of the time (3 of 19), while cases charging Article 128 (assault) did so 73% of the time (8 of 11), the highest among the top charges. The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.

Maltreatment and the General Article

Charge lists cover 63 of the 72 cases, and a case with several articles appears in several rows. Article 93, which covers cruelty and maltreatment of a subordinate, was charged in 10% of cases, compared with 3% Army-wide. Article 134 (general article) was charged in 29%, compared with 22%. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) was charged in 13%, compared with 8%.

Assault was less common. Article 128 was charged in 17% of cases here, compared with 31% across the Army.

More Contested Cases Than Army-Wide

Of the 72 cases, 41 ended in guilty pleas and 31 involved a not-guilty or mixed plea. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share here, 43%, is higher than the 35% across the Army.

Of the 41 guilty pleas, 31 are recorded with a plea agreement and 10 have no entry. Army records note whether there was an agreement, not what it said.

Verdicts in Contested Cases

Of 28 contested cases that reached a verdict, 12 ended in a full acquittal and 11 ended in a partial acquittal. That 43% full-acquittal rate is higher than the 37% in the rest of the Army. A partial acquittal means not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, which makes partial acquittals visible.

In contested cases, members returned a full acquittal 55% of the time, and military judges 35% of the time. The accused chooses the forum in most cases, so the cases each group heard are not alike.

Who Decided the Contested Cases?

Members decided 19% of the cases with the forum listed, all on 14 enlisted panels, and the other 58 were judge alone. Among contested cases, members heard 14 of 31 (45%). Since most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, the overall split largely follows how many cases were contested.

Confinement and Its Length

Of 52 convictions on at least one charge, 40 sentences included confinement (77%). The median was 6 months, the same as the Army as a whole. A quarter of sentences were 2.1 years or longer. Sentences longer than one year were imposed in 15 of 52 convictions (29%), about the same as the 27% Army-wide. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Median confinement differed by charge. Convictions on Article 134 carried a median of 2.4 years, and convictions on Article 120 a median of 2.1 years. Convictions on Article 128 and Article 92 each carried 4 months.

General and Special Courts-Martial

The cases included 55 general and 17 special courts-martial, a general share of 76%, compared with 75% in the rest of the Army. At general courts-martial, 89% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 7 months. At special courts-martial, 47% did, with a median of 31 days.

A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement.

Fewer Punitive Discharges

Among 49 convicted enlisted members, 31 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (63%), less often than the 73% across the Army. Of those, 10 were dishonorable. Of 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, 1 was dismissed, the officer equivalent.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. By rank, the accused included 44 junior enlisted members, 24 NCOs, and 4 officers, a group more junior than the Army as a whole.

Compared With Camp Humphreys and Fort Stewart

Camp Humphreys (69 cases) and Fort Stewart (69 cases) tried similar numbers in the same years, with contested shares of 46% and 48%. Full acquittals were 14 of 30 contested cases that reached a verdict at Camp Humphreys and 13 of 30 at Fort Stewart. Median confinement was 3 months at Camp Humphreys and 1 year at Fort Stewart. Fort Drum was between them at 6 months.

Timing and Missing Information

The cases run from September 2020 to November 2023: 8 in 2020, 34 in 2021, 17 in 2022, and 13 in 2023. These were 5% of the 1,581 Army courts-martial in those years. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, so 2020 is thin. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not show the evidence, plea terms, or conduct handled outside a court-martial.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.